Good dog! Bad dog!

I'm a dog loving freak! Always had dogs my entire childhood and now in my adult life. I feel a bigger bond with animals than I do with humans. That's just my weird self. No, I am not Dr. Doolittle or the Dog whisperer. I just like dogs...and would try and recuse a ton if I could afford it. I already have 3.

The Ladies of the House hold. Mini Schnauzer: Zora, Border Collie: Sasha and Toy: Poodle Ruby

Before I digress anymore, let me get to what I want to talk about.  You know how you are always talking to your dog like a human-being and telling them what to do and you think that they could almost understand what you are saying but then you just shake it off like you are crazy. Well you may not crazy at all.

A recent in the Cell Press journal Current Biology released November 26, shows the first evidence of how dogs differentiate and process those various components of human speech.  Your furry little friend can differentiate between the words you say and the emotion behind them.

"Previous studies showed that dogs have hemispheric biases--left brain versus right--when they process the vocalization sounds of other dogs. Ratcliffe and her supervisor David Reby say it was a logical next step to investigate whether dogs show similar biases in response to the information transmitted in human speech. They played speech from either side of the dog so that the sounds entered each of their ears at the same time and with the same amplitude." (Sciene Daily: Dogs hear our words and how we say them)

The results: "The researchers did observe general biases in dogs' responses to particular aspects of human speech. When presented with familiar spoken commands in which the meaningful components of words were made more obvious, dogs showed a left-hemisphere processing bias, as indicated by turning to the right. When the intonation or speaker-related vocal cues were exaggerated instead, dogs showed a significant right-hemisphere bias." (Sciene Daily: Dogs hear our words and how we say them)

Obviously, it doesn't mean that they will understand everything we say. It just means that they are paying attention to what we say and can make decisions on what we are saying really means to them.

Listen to the podcast of this blog.
 

Bill Cosby Rape Allegations

Here's the story: Bill Cosby's had a civil lawsuit in 2006.  The lawsuit: a women who claimed Cosby sexually assaulted her.  He settled the lawsuit and moved on with his life.  In a recent comedy show in Philadelphia, Hannibal Buress brought up that and called him a "rapist."  This was face that launched a thousand ships.

After this, more than a dozen women came forward saying that Cosby had sexually assaulted them.  Many news agencies from NPR to the AP have given Cosby the opportunity to have a say in these allegation but he has remained silent.  Recently, the AP decided to release this video footage that show extras of an interview where he asked the reporter to not show that part. While I feel the reporter should have stood his ground, he was a little wishy washy.  It's his job to get to the truth whether or not he answers. Don't pass it onto "your boss wants you to ask."

Cosby has the right to not say anything and protect his privacy but as a public figure and "America's TV father," that's out of the question. He owes his viewers, followers a comment. NOT SAYING ANYTHING HARMS YOUR CREDIBILITY!

After a month of not saying much, yesterday, Cosby finally broke his silence:

"I know people are tired of me not saying anything, but a guy doesn't have to answer to innuendos," he told Florida Today on Friday. "People should fact check. People shouldn't have to go through that and shouldn't answer to innuendos."

So what happens from here? Who knows. He hasn't been charged with anything, yet. These are just allegations. We will have to wait if any of these women bring back the lawsuit since there is no statue of limitation on it.

Listen to the podcast of this blog.